Mark
Cohen has been recording original songs on his own and as part of Horsham
pop duo, The Beat Circus since 1985. Although The Beat Circus split in 1989,
Mark continued to record his ideas to a four track Portastudio. During 1991
he decided to pool together some of the many songs he had recorded and put
them out under the name, The Shining Hour. This venture was partly inspired
by the success of Neale Harmer's own recording project, Fragile.

Mark
compiled two tapes for issue, the first of which was 'Evidence'. 'Evidence'
sold reasonably well (especially in Europe) but failed to make the necessary
number of contacts to ensure worthwhile duplication of the follow-up,
'Resolution'. Apart from issue to a few die-hard fans 'Resolution' and
subsequent releases have only had a limited issue.

The Shining
Hour now has an ever growing catalogue of releases, the latest being "Long
Lost" in November 2006. (See the Releases
page for more details). Although 'Evidence' may have given the idea that
The Shining Hour was just jangly pop, selected songs from the 'Electric'
tape onwards tell a different story. Songs such as 'Maybe This Time',
'Been In Love Before' and 'So Soon' could be categorised as ballads whilst
'Weak', 'Determined' and 'Run Away' should just be played loud!

In October
1998, Apricot Records released the first ever Shining Hour 7 inch vinyl
single. The E.P. entitled "Five O'Clock Rise included the songs; "I Won't
Be Home", "Five O'Clock Rise", "Determined" and "Something". See theSingle page
for more details. In February 1999 Apricot Records released a 15 track
CD album entitled "Wait All Summer". This is essentially a compilation
of songs chosen from recordings made over the past 10 years. Some of the
songs have never appeared before on Shining Hour cassette releases. In
April 2002, Apricot Records released the second Shining Hour album, the
12 track CD "Postcards From Home".

Some
of the songs recorded by Mark over the years now form part of the Fragile
set (in which he plays guitar and sings) - 'Don't Mention Her Name', 'Worlds
Apart', 'Haunted', 'Won't Get Caught Again' are just some of the songs
played along with Neale's originals forming a tight, powerful set. Have
a look at the Fragilewebsite for further details.